General Interest
1991 : Magic Johnson announces he is HIV positive
1885 : Canada's transcontinental railway completed
1940 : Tacoma Bridge collapses
1944 : FDR reelected a record third time
1989 : Two African American firsts in politics
American Revolution
1776 : Post office stays in the Franklin family
Automotive
1957 : East Germany launches the Trabant Sputnik
1965 : Green Monster sets new speed record
Civil War
1861 : Battle of Belmont, Missouri
Cold War
1957 : Gaither Report calls for more U.S. missiles and fallout shelters
Crime
1983 : A family is brutally murdered
Disaster
1940 : Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses
Entertainment
1943 : Joni Mitchell born
1951 : Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra marry
Literary
1913 : French novelist Albert Camus is born
Old West
1916 : Jeannette Rankin becomes first U.S. congresswoman
Presidential
1944 : FDR wins unprecedented fourth term
Vietnam War
1964 : U.S. intelligence asserts numbers of North Vietnamese in South Vietnam growing
1966 : McNamara shouted down at Harvard speech
1972 : Nixon re-elected president
Wall Street
1918 : Rumors close NYSE
1984 : Wall Street's election woes
1997 : Greenspan speaks in Germany
World War I
1914 : First issue of The New Republic published
World War II
1944 : Soviet master spy is hanged by the Japanese
From The History Channel.